The Runaway
by Loving Healer
Summary: Some mysterious person called "The Runaway" has been on the run...where the nickname comes in. But, other than being on the run, he kills people, and no one knows why, yet he seems sympathetic to the children with no home. But, when Percy finds out the reasons to all of the Runaway's actions, Percy is just too persistent to stop helping. But, helping with what?


_**Author's Note: Yay! My third Pernico/Percico fanfic! I'm still in the middle of one though…so updates won't be very fast as usual. **_

_**I couldn't think of a cover for this fanfic…so if you have any ideas on what it could be, feel free to tell me! I would SERIOUSLY appreciate it. Having a story without a cover bothers me so much.**_

_**This is also a High School-ish AU—just a reminder. And the POV for this fanfic revolves around Percy. **_

_**And also, this is a smut fanfic. So if you don't like boy/boy or boyxboy, don't read. **_

_**Also, random fun fact time! I used to write nonfanfiction before I started to write fanfics, and one of those nonfanfics were called The Runaway. Yay! Now this fanfic is called that. Just a random fun fact.**_

_**And, Percy's friends aren't listed in the story. So, if you're curious, I'll list them here: Annabeth, Grover, Rachel, Zoe, Drew, Jason, Leo, Piper, Frank, Hazel, Silena, Beckendorf, Calypso, and Reyna. **_

_**I didn't want to add TOO many, in case I end up losing track of them, which happened in my other fanfic. And I added the ones that'd be easy for me to type (as close to Rick Riordan's personalities he gave the characters as I can), so yeah. Sorry if there's someone you like that's not in here…But, I probably made Drew too snobby and stuff.**_

_**I guess that is all I have to say for this. Happy reading my very first chapter of the fanfic! It's weird how there's not prologue for this fanfic…I usually have prologues. But, whatever. Enjoy! (Sorry this chapter is shorter than usual, my chapters are usually at least 3,000 words.)**_

_**Note: Sorry for any kind of mistakes! I do not have an editor/beta reader, so this fanfic isn't perfect in terms of grammar, punctuation, etc. I am all on my own on this fanfic…how sad. **_

_**Warning: Homosexuality, bisexuality, language, death, slaughter (I'll add more along the way) **_

_**Disclaimer: Wish I was Rick Riordan. I mean, how cool would that be? But, as you can see, I am not Rick Riordan, sadly.**_

* * *

**The Runaway**

**Author: Loving Healer**

**Chapter One**

* * *

"I'm bored."

"Then do something about it."

"Like what?"

"I don't know! I'm not you, Percy!"

It was the beginning of lunch time at school, Manhattan High School to be exact, and I was extremely bored. My best friend, Annabeth, who used to be my girlfriend, kept complaining about how much I was complaining. And, it had only been five minutes into lunch. I didn't even know why I was so bored, so don't ask. I get bored way too easily—not that I would admit it out loud. Most of my friends haven't arrived yet, but Annabeth and I happened to be in the closest class to the cafeteria.

Annabeth—like I said earlier—was my best friend. She used to be my girlfriend until…I found out that I was bisexual. Sure, I liked girls still, but at that time I ended up liking guys more. Annabeth and I broke up…and it was really bad. It took her a full year for her to recover, and it was the worst year of my life. I was just glad she was my friend. She got a little jealous whenever a girl asked me out, and I knew she tried really hard to hide it.

I was just glad my friends took it okay when I told them I was bisexual when they asked me why Annabeth and I broke up. Some just shrugged and told me: "I don't really care. Percy is Percy, right?" Other smiles and patted me on the back, or hugged me, saying that everything was fine and that they were always there for me. I was just glad and lucky to have such supportive friends.

Speaking of friends…

"Hey, guys!"

That grabbed out attention from our super boring conversation. We glanced behind us to find Rachel Elizabeth Dare and Piper McLean—two of my amazing friends.

Rachel Elizabeth Dare hated nicknames, but Grover and Leo—some of my other friends—called her Rach anyway. She was tall, had freckles across her face, and green eyes that almost matched mine. She had frizzy red hair that went down to the middle of her back, but her bangs that would cover her face were pinned to the side with a purple clip. She usually wore over-sized shirts with a bunch of doodles or paint splatters on them. Rachel was also Annabeth's study partner—though Annabeth would never admit that she was jealous of me befriending Rachel. Sometimes, Annabeth can get too jealous. Yet, she tries to always hide it. I admire that, since she isn't selfish.

Piper had chocolate brown hair that went down to the end of her shoulder blades, though it was cut unevenly. She always had thin braids on either side of her face, with different colored feathers intertwined into the braids. She had dark tanned skin and eyes that changed from brown to blue to green like a kaleidoscope. Sometimes her eyes would change color depending on her mood, like if she was really happy, they would be brown. If she was sad, they'd turn blue, and if she was angry, sometimes they would turn brown, but they were mostly green. She didn't wear very elaborate clothing like most girls at the school. She had more of a tomboyish appearance rather than a girl that more frivolous skirts and dresses with a bunch of bows, ribbons, and sparkles all over them along with high heels et cetera, et cetera.

"Hey!" Annabeth waved them over to our table. "Percy's been complaining how bored he is."

Rachel rolled her eyes. "Of course he has been. And it's been like what? Five minutes since lunch started?"

Piper smiled an amused smile at me and pushed her index finger into my forehead. "Percy, you have the attention span of a baby."

I swatted her hand away from my forehead and grumbled, "I do not."

Piper giggled. "Of course not," she replied sarcastically. I could only roll my eyes at her.

A few minutes later, all of my friends were present at the table I was sitting at, chatting away and laughing about some stupid things. I had many friends, and I didn't really want to take the time to describe in detail all of them to you. I was just glad to have them, since I hated being alone. I was very social to everyone around me in all of my classes, so most of the people at school knew me.

"Oh, guys! Did you hear?" Hazel brought up, bringing everyone's attention to her.

"Is it about that guy running around killing people?" Leo asked.

Hazel nodded. "Yeah. Apparently another person has been killed. A lot of people are moving out of here in case. I was kind of afraid if one of you guys would."

Everyone shook their heads, while Annabeth spoke up, "I'm pretty sure there is a reason as to why this guy is running around killing people if he has some common sense and a heart. And, Leo, his name—the one the police gave him—is 'The Runaway'. Not 'that guy running around killing people'."

"Maybe he's gone insane," Grover suggested.

"And, I don't care what his 'codename' is. I could think of a bajillion cooler nicknames than that," Leo boasted.

Annabeth rolled her eyes, shaking her head and mumbling to herself, "Stupid as ever, both of them." But, only I caught what she said, because she was the one sitting next to me. She cleared her throat and glanced at our group of friends once more. "If he was insane, they would've caught him by now. He's pretty smart, if you haven't noticed. He deceives everyone that tries to get in his way. Some girls even claim that he used his looks to get away from the girls that catch him."

"Wow." Piper whistled. "That is one unique guy you would never be able to find. Those types of guys are born once every millennium."

"But wait, Ms. Brain Girl," Leo started, making Annabeth turn a death glare onto him. But Leo only shrugged it off. "If this guy uses his looks to get away at some points, wouldn't that mean he has good self-esteem? I mean, not like he would look any better than me." To prove his point, he started to flex his biceps.

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "First of all, do not call me that ever again. Second of all, for all we know, he might be forced into this type of thing. He probably knows people find him good-looking, but he doesn't think that of himself. That's possible, you know."

"There've been rumors that this guy's been helping the homeless by stealing the money from his victims," Rachel added in.

"Gross," Drew commented. "I hope if this guy _is_ hot. I love his type. The mysterious bad boy while at the same time looking cute."

"Haven't you realized that every guy is your type?" Piper shot at Drew, making another death glare come into the direction of the Cherokee-decent girl.

"Maybe he's only killing them for the money for the homeless." Frank shrugged.

"If he's smart enough to deceive his way out of getting caught, wouldn't you think he'd do the same thing but by getting money?" Annabeth pointed out. "From what I've heard, he's only killing the people that have a decent amount of money and are living with happy families. Why he's doing it, no one knows. The police want to get him interrogated privately first before he gets his trial. They believe that he'd be able to deceive his way out of his own court trial."

Zoe nodded in agreement. "That is highly likely. If this boy really does have a charm and is very intelligent, he could get through almost anything. Unless there is a person smarter than him, then someone would finally be able to catch him."

"Yeah, Annabeth, maybe you should join the police." Leo smirked.

Annabeth only glared at Leo, something Leo has gotten immune to since he first met her, before continuing. "No one's been in contact with this guy. As far as we know, this guy works by himself. Some of the homeless children have wanted to help him, but the police said that the guy refused their help, from what they've gotten from some of the homeless children. The homeless children said that the guy was actually nice, and they claimed that the reason the guy didn't want their help was because he didn't want them getting hurt. So, that proves that he does have a heart."

"My theory is that this guy had a bad childhood, or he's getting forced into this," Reyna chimed in, something she never usually did unless an interesting conversation caught her attention.

Annabeth nodded. "That's what I think."

"How'd you even get all of this information anyway?" I arched an eyebrow at her.

Annabeth sighed heavily. "Because I watch the News." She flicked me in the forehead.

"_Ow_, okay, jeez, just asking," I grumbled, bring my hand up to the spot where she decided to flick me, and started to massage the area. "You didn't have to flick me."

"I was just trying to flick some sense into you." Annabeth innocently shrugged. "What? Did you want me to smack you? I'd gladly do that you know." She smirked in my direction, making me pout and cross my arms.

I slouched in my seat. "You are so mean to me, Annabeth."

Annabeth only laughed. "Hey, that's what friends are for."

"Well, that's Annabeth's way of telling someone that she acknowledges you as a friend," Piper said, making everyone at the table laugh. Annabeth only rolled her eyes.

Lunch went by in a flash, and the next class I had was English, taught by Athena, who was Annabeth's mom. I found it very strange how I was placed into that class. I have the feeling that Athena gave me so many bad grades in that class because she was getting her revenge on me for breaking up with her daughter. I tried not to think about it, but the way she glared at me during the lectures made me very uncomfortable in my seat. Leo had to try very hard not to laugh every single time, even though he had grades that were worse than mine.

The last class I had was Health, which I was very glad to have as my last class, because it was taught by a chill twenty-four year-old and not a stingy fifty year-old. His name was Apollo, and he was probably the best teacher I'll ever have. I wished I had him for English too, because he taught English as well. That's why he always got bugged by our Health essays that we turned in; my class was very bad at grammar, punctuation, spelling, cohesion; anything you can pretty much think of that was in a regular school essay. But hey, he was better at handling it than Athena. I was afraid her head would explode and her eyes would pop out from correcting the essay in the middle of class. But actually, if that did happen, then English would be cancelled. Wow, I feel really bad now for thinking that about Annabeth's mom.

* * *

After school when the bell rang, signaling the end of the torturous seven hours of school, Annabeth ran up to my side just as I was walking home.

"Hey, can I walk home with you?" She asked, falling into step with me.

I shrugged. "Sure, why not? I need some help on my…everything homework."

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Of course. Just like always."

When we turned a corner onto a street that wasn't very busy, Annabeth stopped. I kept on walking, until I realized that Annabeth's presence beside me was gone. I glanced behind my shoulder and saw Annabeth staring into a dark alley between two buildings.

I walked up to her, arching an eyebrow. "Annabeth, what's—"

She quietly slapped a hand to my mouth. Without saying a word, she pointed into the alley. I glanced into it, and my eyes widened.

The alley was a little dim, but because it was the afternoon, a speck of sunlight was able to enter the alley. There were two children—homeless children, probably about six or seven years-old—in there, each tugging on the bottom of the black cloak. The person _wearing_ the black cloak was probably the person Annabeth was most shocked about seeing.

The person wearing the black cloak was smiling kindly at the two children, ruffling one of the boy's hair. There was a hood on the black cloak, but he didn't seem to where it. Yes, _he_. I could barely see his facial features in the dim alley, but I would be lying if I said he wasn't good-looking. I could make out black hair as black as the cloak he wore, and it was styled so that he looked as if he just got out of bed. He had piercing eyes that were either black or dark brown, but I couldn't see with the lack of lighting. Even if he wore a generous smile on his face, his eyes showed both depression and fear, but it wasn't directed to the children. His arms were spread out to reach the top of the children's head, so I could see what he wore _under_ the cloak: a black T-shirt and worn out black skinny jeans, each with rips on the knee part of the pants. I could tell that the rips were not originally there. And, the two things that caught my eye were strapped to his belt by his sides: a knife even darker than midnight, and a gun that gleamed against the sunlight that barely reached the dim alley on his other side.

My eyes widened, and I pointed a timid hand at the guy in the cloak. "Is that—"

Annabeth turned to me and put a finger to her lips, telling me to shut up. I clamped my mouth shut, but opened it again when I realized what Annabeth was going to do.

Annabeth slowly and quietly sneaked up on them. I didn't know _what_ she wanted to do or what she planned to do once that good-looking guy noticed her, but I didn't want to be there to see it. Actually, I could name a million other better things to be doing other than being in this situation. I'd rather be in English class with a strict Athena and a barely-containing-his-laughter Leo..

"So, you're the guy the police call 'The Runaway', aren't you?" Annabeth asked when she was a few feet away from the guy and the two children, which sent a shiver down my spine as I saw his generous and kind expression quickly turn to one of annoyance.

He scowled at her, and the two children that we staring up at him with hopeful eyes scurried behind him and peeked behind his legs with a look that deer had when caught in the spotlight of a car in the middle of the road.

When I saw his hand reach toward his perfectly polished knife, the only two things I could think of in my mind that were not alarms blaring were "Shit" and "Make a break for it!"


End file.
